Search form

If you think the American voters have had a bad year, at least the election is over. Samsung's year seems to be getting worse, not better. Between exploding washing machines and of course, Galaxy Note 7 explosions, the company has had an "explosive" year. Samsung has tried to do the right thing by voluntarily recalling the washers and the smartphones in question. It even took out full page ads in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Washington Journal offering an apology. But the damage is done. Between the fires and battery explosions, airlines won't let you fly with one of the recalled Galaxy Note 7 phones. How likely is it they'll let the next version fly?

With iOS 10 on iPhone, you can type a word in messages and Predictive text will suggest the emoji that matches that word. However, most people I’ve talked to don’t want to replace the word with an emoji, they simply want to include the emoji after the word. Luckily, you can add emojis to your messages without opening the emoji keyboard and avoid replacing the word with a simple tap of the space bar. The emoji will remain in your Predictive text suggestions and you can easily select the emoji to appear right after the word for it. I’ll show you what I mean below; here’s how to prevent emojis from replacing words in Messages.

Last summer, I was very lucky to be able to take a three-week road trip with one of my best friends on the planet. During the entire trip, we both worked remotely. For the most part, we stopped in coffee shops found all along our route, using their free Wi-Fi and ordering awesome coffee while we worked. However, there were multiple occasions when our devices ran out of power on the road with no power outlets in sight. Had we brought a RAVPower Bank ($39.99) with us, we wouldn’t have needed to frantically look for a place to charge our devices in every place we stopped.

Need iPad and iPhone help? Sign up for iPhone Life Insider and I’ll help you with all of your iPhone troubleshooting and iOS-related issues. Here’s a question from an Insider who accidentally made their All Inboxes mailbox disappear from the Mail app, plus some bonus advice for anyone whose Mail app has disppeared in iOS 10 and wants to know how to get the Mail app back on iPhone:

If you think of something you don’t want to forget, you can quickly ask Siri to add the reminder to your list. But when you ask Siri to remind you about something, like your car payment, Siri automatically adds the reminder to the default Reminders list. If you want the reminder added to a different list, that's possible too. You just have to phrase your request a little differently. Here’s how to use Siri to add reminders to specific lists.

Apple may be reporting its highest ever pre-orders for the new MacBook Pro line, but it is also dealing with a backlash due to its "cold-turkey" adoption of the new USB-C port standard. As we reported, USB-C may be the port of the future, but it is going to mean a lot of accessories to bring with you to achieve the functionality that the old MacBook Pro offered out of the box. Adopters of the new MacBook Pro give up the ability to walk into a conference room and present by plugging in to an omnipresent HDMI cable, or to take an SD card from a camera and insert it into a MacBook Pro. The same goes for the ubiquitous USB flash drive. By making the only ports on the MacBook Pro be USB-C, even though it provides as many as four of them (but only two offer the highest bandwidth) Apple has necessitated carrying around adapters for USB-A, HDMI, and more. Ironically, Apple kept the headphone jack on the MacBook Pro while it eliminated it on the iPhone 7.

Looking for a way to stay focused and disciplined on completing a task on time? The Pomodoro Technique is a proven approach to time management that has been programmatically captured in a number of iOS apps. Some are simple timers while others offer much more. This review takes a closer look at Be Focused Pro ($1.99 iOS, $4.99 macOS), one of the more comprehensive, Apple-hardware-friendly programs available on the App Store today.

Apple Maps is finally catching up to Google Maps. With iOS 10, you can avoid tolls in Apple Maps more easily by changing a setting. Previously, the only way to avoid toll roads in Apple Maps was to look at the available routes and choose one that indicated it was toll-road free. With iOS 10, you can avoid tolls in Apple Maps because the changed setting automatically directs you to a route without toll roads. You can still select a toll road, but Apple Maps gives you the option to avoid them before suggesting you take a toll-road-ridden route. Here’s how to avoid toll roads in Apple Maps with iOS 10 on iPhone.

With iOS 10, Maps is able to show you where you parked your car. However, this feature only works for those who have Bluetooth or CarPlay in their vehicles. But plenty of people without Bluetooth or CarPlay need help finding their parked car. We’ve got a smart solution you can use regardless the type of vehicle you have. The big difference between the iOS 10 Parked Car feature and our workaround tip is that you need to remember to do this each time you park somewhere you think you won’t remember. Here’s how to find your parked car if you don’t have Bluetooth or Carplay.

Every so often a product comes along that reinforces what Arthur C. Clarke, the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, said. Specifically, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That's how I felt when I tried the InkCase i6 ($109) from Oaxis.

Within the Messages app, you can send and receive audio messages with other iPhone users. This lets you send brief recordings of music, a voice birthday message, and more. One of my best friends and I enjoy sending audio recordings back and forth, having a full conversation using audio messages. The audio messages you send also disappear after a set amount of time unless the recipient taps Keep. Sending and receiving audio messages is a fun way communicate with your voice without being on the phone. Here’s how to send and receive audio text messages.

Control Center on iPhone got an upgrade with iOS 10. The new operating system also gives us the option to remove stock apps from our Home screens. While the Apple stock apps you remove aren’t deleted completely, they are out of sight and out of mind. When I downloaded iOS 10, I started deleting every Apple stock app that I don’t use. But a week later, I needed to use the Calculator on iPhone. I swiped up to open Control Center, but it was gone! I panicked, “how could Apple remove the calculator?” After a very angry email, Apple calmly informed me that if I removed the Calculator app, it would also disappear from Control Center— thus causing me to look like a buffoon. Oh well, at least I got the calculator back. Has a similar instance happened to you? If your calculator on iPhone is missing from Control Center in iOS 10, here’s how to get it back.

Setting your Home address in Maps makes it easy to get directions from your current location to Home. Likewise, by setting a Work address and Favorites, whether in Apple Maps or Google Maps, getting directions to those set locations only takes a couple taps. If you’ve already set your Home address in Apple or Google Maps, it’s still helpful to know this tip incase you ever need to update your Home or Work address. We’ll divide this article up by Apple Maps and Google Maps. Then for each Maps, we’ll go over how to set your Home address, Work address, and create Favorites. Overall, having these set will save you time when planning daily routes to and from frequent locations.

With iOS 10, Siri can announce incoming calls. When the iPhone has an incoming call, Siri will let you know who is calling out loud. This iOS 10 feature is an accessibility feature but it’s also helpful when you’re running, biking, or keeping your iPhone in your pocket. Luckily, unlike some other iOS 10 features, Siri announcing incoming calls isn’t limited to newer iPhones. Here’s how to get Siri to announce incoming callers with iOS 10.

Feeling overwhelmed by Facebook? Learn to use Facebook with the iPhone Life team when you become an iPhone Life Insider. We’ve got the best Facebook tips and tricks to help you use the social media platform in the easiest way possible. Dive into Facebook tips, such as how to stop Facebook from taking up too much storage on your iPhone, how to unfollow friends when you don’t want to see their posts, how to set a video as your profile picture, and much more. The Facebook tips collection features short videos paired with step-by-step instructions as well as a roundtable conversation about Facebook privacy settings with the iPhone Life team. We’ll give you a sneak peek below, then be sure to check out our full collection of 8 Tips to Help You Get More Out of Facebook with the iPhone Life Insider subscription.

The all-new Scosche BoomBuoy™ ($39.99) is the perfect pocket-sized wireless speaker that really packs a punch! Count on rich, crystal-clear, omni-directional sound and up to 7 hours of play time with this IP67 rated, waterproof/dustproof speaker. Compact and incredibly rugged, BoomBuoy is designed for optimum performance in outdoor environments. Just clip it to your backpack or slip it into your pocket and head outdoors! And it floats.